Attraction Guided by Our Genes:
We might like to think we’re in control of who we fall in love with, but our genes have already made the choice for us.
BY TALAL AL-KHATIB OCTOBER 19, 2015 3:00 PM EDT
Opposites attract. It’s a basic principle of magnetism that has long been applied to romance. But the problem is that research on relationships shows that this notion, which sounds all well and good in song form, doesn’t ring true in practice.
Instead, we tend to be attracted to people who are similar to us in one way or another. It’s a phenomenon known as assortative mating. Assortative mating can be seen across traits like race, age, facial characteristics and body type, all of which have a genetic basis.
Individuals in fact tend to seek out someone with similar DNA, finds a joint analysis of Latino communities in Mexico, Puerto Rico and the United States by researchers at the University of California – San Francisco, Microsoft Research, Harvard, University of California – Berkeley, and Tel Aviv University.
Photos: Mating in Nature is Wild
Couples who pair up in these communities often have similar genetic ancestry, which proves stronger in determining mate selection than other socioeconomic factors, such as education levels, which itself has shown to be a powerful predictor of attraction in previous research.
In fact, ancestry was so similar in the populations studied that the average couple was the genetic equivalent of between third and fourth cousins. This degree of genetic relatedness among mating pairs could have potential health implications, both positively and negatively, as recessive alleles are more commonly passed in partners with similar genetic profiles.
There is a limitation in this study in that the research, appearing the latest Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), in that it focused on ethnically homogenous communities. Other studies have found similar results, however, when looking at different populations.
https://www.seeker.com/attraction-guided-by-our-genes-1770355449.html
“Instead, we tend to be attracted to people who are similar to us in one way or another.”
My college son (soon to be graduate!) is madly in love with a gal. “And she even eats Lucky Charms the way I do - keeping the ratio of cereal to marshmallows even so you don’t end up with no marshmallows at the end!” (”Well - I hope there is more to the relationship than THAT!”)
I’m always amazed at the unknown twins that find each other, and find out they both are great tennis players and play piano with Bach being their favorite, both married a Dentist and have a yellow lab. So while this story might be fake - it almost sounds like it could be true and classify as a weird (okay - really weird) “twin” story.